The Double

The Double

Most significant of the Russian novelist's early stories (1846) offers a straight-faced treatment of a hallucinatory theme. Golyadkin senior is a powerless target of persecution by Golyadkin junior, his double in almost every respect. Familiar Dostoyevskan themes of helplessness, victimization, scandal — beautifully handled in this small masterpiece.

Reprinted from The Eternal Husband, and Other Stories, William Heinemann, Ltd., 1917.